Romney-Ryan Republicans. It’s good alliteration, but not a game changer. First, the electorate votes the top of the ticket, and Ryan isn’t energizing enough to get a major deviation from that rule. Second, Romney now has to embrace the Ryan budget or continue to suffer the reputation as an equivocator. Third, given Ryan is universally considered a “nice guy”, he can’t suddenly become a pit bull without doing injury to his credibility. Plus, he’s young enough to nurture future ambitions and a scorched earth approach hurts him personally in the long run.

It says a lot that Romney is still trying to juice up his base rather than reach to the middle. It also spells that his campaign is in trouble that they’re willing to change the narrative they’ve been using. But, and that’s the biggest but in this cycle, there’s all that Citizen United money out there which could just overwhelm conventional wisdom, political reality and electoral logic.

The failure to recollect the incident is astounding. His camp must be glad not to have to deal with a birth certificate question. And an apology as conditional as the one that was offered lacks the requisite sincerity. Short version is that the dubious response to a long ago boyhood incident is revealing about the man who would be president today.

A11 is the one must-read page in today’s copy of The New York Times. That’s because No Labels’ full-page ad on The No Budget, No Pay Act is there, front and center.

The ad coincides with the release of the President’s budget this coming Monday, and to drive the message home No Labels also sent a letter to congressional leadership calling on Congress to pass the bipartisan No Budget, No Pay Act (H.R. 3643 / S. 1981), sponsored by Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) and Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN). The Senate bill will receive a hearing by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in March. The press release is here and the complete ad copy is here.